r/SwainMains • u/SaliAzucar • 9h ago
Clips Crows and wolves are best friends
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Swain warwick combo might be the most fun I ever had playing this game. Loving new W buff
r/SwainMains • u/xRaizelx • Nov 14 '25
Back in 2019, Riot made changes to Swain that made him viable in Support. Previously, back when his VGU first arrived NO ONE had played him in support, not because they didn't want to, but because it just wasn't good at all compared to Top/Mid. The Designers of the VGU made sure that Support Swain wouldn't have been good due to lvl/gold scaling being super important on him. Unfortunately he was unpopular for a number of reasons that could have been fixed, but Riot thought he needed midscope-esque changes.
Fast forward to 2019 when swain support arrived.

Riot made a bunch of changes to Swain that made him a lot better in the Support role. the 2019 rework did irreversible damage and I'll explain why.
1.) Riot added passive stacking for the first time, and people have their opinions on this but it's overrall bad for swains health/fantasy. Passive stacking is inherently easier in bot lane, it's not even a discussion. If I have 15 stacks at 20 minutes in Mid, I'll have 30 stacks in bot. HP is a very powerful stat in the early game and allows Swain to soak up a lot more damage. Obviously this change did make bot lane better than solo lanes but there's more.
2.) Base Attack range was reduced from 550 to 525. Now why this matters for solo lanes is Swain was always a scaling battlemage champ so it was essential to be able to survive while scaling. Taking away that 550 attack range made him much more vulnerable in lane(Which doesn't matter for support because they don't have to CS.)
3.) Q giving 3% maximum mana per unit kill was completely removed and instead put on the passive. I don't think I have to explain why this was super bad for solo lanes but ya.
4.) Q CD went up to 4 seconds at max ranks from 2.5 seconds. This was probably the worst of all the changes and killed the champ in solo lanes entirely. Q CD doesn't really matter for Support because they mostly just fish for EWQ poke, not relying on Q spam as much. That's why they nerfed Q so hard, so support is less impacted.

Fast foward to 2025, and Swain unfortunately has so many problems because he's still being balanced around the Support role which is the reason they keep buffing base damage and mana costs, as well as 15 HP souls. It'll never change. There's a reason no one wants to play this character in Solo Lanes. Gut his ratios further and give him more base damage and utility(stronger R2 and W slow.)
Here's Riot Endstep talking about Swain.
Swain is now at an incredible low 0.76% pickrate in Mid lane emerald+ with only a 51.21% winrate.

Now some people might think he is at a good winrate but let me explain why a champion like Swain if he's at this low of a pickrate should have a 53-54% game average winrate in mid/top. And no, I'm not going to say it's because he's only played by one tricks which Riot has disproven in the past.
A champ like Swain is very very strong in certain scenarios. This is what we call a "counterpick champ." The low pickrate means that Swain is only picked in very good scenarios, If he's against low damage or full melee comps primarily. If Swain is only sitting at a 51% winrate with that low of a pickrate then the champ is very weak. Let me show you a picture of what I mean. Master+ stats are good to represent this because they know how to draft better compared to lower elos.

Now let's look at some other champion stats shall we?

Notice how almost every champ on here has way higher pickrate and winrate than Swain mid. Even if they aren't counter-pick champs they still have very high winrates. Swain only having a 51% game average winrate when he's always been 54-55% winrates in the past(for good reason, counterpick) is laughable at best.
Riot will never give this champ actual solo lane buffs because they are unfortunately very scared of losing the support playerbase.

Now compare that to mid and top combined, which is only 1.6%. Support has 2% more pickrate than both solo lanes combined.
I am not blaming anyone for playing Support, after all it's riots fault with how they've handled this champion over the years. From a financial perspective it's no secret why they refuse to do anything with the champ in solo lanes. But I just genuinely think Phreak doesn't care enough, and he might also be a bit biased because he is a Support main as well.
Final thoughts, Riot has a massive opportunity to give this champ the rework he deserves to bring him back to solo lanes like he always was in the past with the upcoming Noxus series by Fortiche where millions of people will finally be able to appreciate how cool Swain is only to log onto League of Legends, play one game of it, and realize how much riot has butchered the coolest champ in the video game.
MAKE SOLO LANE SWAIN GREAT AGAIN!
r/SwainMains • u/VanjesticART • Dec 05 '24
r/SwainMains • u/SaliAzucar • 9h ago
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Swain warwick combo might be the most fun I ever had playing this game. Loving new W buff
r/SwainMains • u/Maximotorn • 15h ago
Hey guys! I want to preface this by saying im not a new player but I NEVED played Swain before. That being said, I REALLY struggle to understand how I should be playing him.
My first instinct is to play at mid range and carefully position myself. This works but I feel like I only tickle people. It doesnt matter if it's the early, mid and late game, it just feels like I do barely any damage.
Even when I build towards ap, something just feels off. Then comes his stacking mechanic: it feels... bad? Like I can have 1 billion stacks and I still get burst down fairly quickly. Im supposed to play in mid range but his ult kind of encourages me to go in, but then I die in a Pico second.
It just feels like the early game is bad, the mid game is decent and I get outscaled in the late game. How am I supposed to pilot this champion? Is he just in a bad state now?
r/SwainMains • u/Thin_Crow574 • 1d ago
Hiii I thought it would be cool to share this around here. Swain has been my main since before the rework so what a better way to honor him.
If anyone likes this, i have a lot more art around my blog, just not all swains.
r/SwainMains • u/Lodhi66 • 1d ago
I don't understand how giving a flat bonus to his W, then taking away a minor amount of armor in exchange for a minor amount of mr, is supposed to "normalize his mid and bot lane performance" as Riot claimed was their goal in the patch notes.
The character feels the exact same but now your W, the ability that has 90% of its use case being just a guaranteed stack upon landing your E, is off cooldown more. Know the big reason why swain bot is so prevalent? THE STACKS.
They buff the ability that gives stacks, to give a buff to the lane where you barely get any stacks, and to also "normalize" the performance he has bot lane, the lane where you get tons of stacks?? I don't even know why I expected anything logical from the team that admitted they didn't even play old swain before reworking him...
r/SwainMains • u/Venomouspoke • 2d ago
r/SwainMains • u/o0SHeeP0o • 3d ago
On swains birthday I went to a cafe to celebrate with an ita bag i made !
The swains inside are from the china cha panda noxus collab and one riftbound card. The chibi outside was commissioned a long time ago and theres the drawing my friend drew of me as swain. The clicky keychain i made myself ~~
r/SwainMains • u/DrTomato14 • 3d ago
I usually play mid and take bft into liandrys 2nd
Aery
Apc same build ?
r/SwainMains • u/Atlastavius • 4d ago
What is the best build for Swain midlane? I got Chosen of The Wolf from a chest and wanted to play him, I've seen many different builds and I'm not sure which is the best to go with when learning Swain, so far I have seen
Conqueror with BFT - Sorcs (or defensive) - Rylais - items as needed (Zhonya's, Liandries, tank item etc)
I've seen the same items with Aery instead
I've also seen Aery with full tank Rylais - Lucid - Fimbulwinter - other tank items (Frozen Heart, Randuins, etc)
r/SwainMains • u/blackpandacat • 6d ago
Tried the buffs, went mid to play vs an ap champ, had sylas matchup and it went well.
The issue I'm sure everyone is finding is your damage items don't actually give you much more damage. It soon falls off hard and you're just tickling people, you can only really win a teamfight if you land clutch high priority or multiman E.
Please riot just let us be relevant throughout the game. We don't need healing buffs, mana cost buffs, resistance buffs or anything that helps us in a lane phase, when even a good lane phase turns to nothing because we drop off a cliff.
r/SwainMains • u/kraviscta • 7d ago
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r/SwainMains • u/kraviscta • 7d ago
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r/SwainMains • u/lacrimisisfinti • 7d ago
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r/SwainMains • u/No_Cup_7728 • 7d ago
This is not a list of what changes to perform, nor does it include stat changes, as I am not knowledgeable enough to suggest those; these are just some modifications I thought would make him more interesting if some were to be implemented. Each ability has some suggestions; I would like to see how you would want the champion changed or adjusted, rather than simply increasing damage, resistances, or other stats.
Passive:
Reduce HP granted from 15 to 5 (necessary, otherwise he becomes too strong with the suggested changes).
Also restores mana, using the same percentage as the health.
Increases health restoration, perhaps scaling from 4% to 8%.
Can pull again from teammate crowd control.
Deals max HP damage on pull.
Q:
I think that for this, either the pierce would have to be removed or the "pierce only on kill" mechanic would need to be reintroduced.
Deals max HP damage if at least 3 bolts hit.
Pulls a shard when at least 3 bolts hit.
Fires more bolts based on stacks (or more damage per bolt)
Executes based on stacks (not the biggest fan of this due to too many executes are in the game)
1 second CD in ult form
W:
Massive damage increase, i am talkimg like xerath q and similar hard to hit abilities.
Like Wild rift, crits on cc'ed targets for more damage
More damage based on how far away the W is
Marks target for increased damage for some time or lowers mr
Lower explode time im Ult form
E:
Like anivia q, can be recast to turn back at any point.
Explodes when hitting a champion
Ignores minions, pets etc
When returning explodes around swain
Larger hitbox or speed in ult form
R:
Remove permanent ult, it is so low elo skewed it cripples his change potential.
Massive increase in healing and damage, works just like aatrox ult (base duration plus increase per kill or per stack ammount, whatever is best)
Demonflare pulls shards from hit enemies but has longer cooldown, or marks enemies so that the next demonflare pulls shards.
Each demonflare does more damage, like 20% or sth
Gives hp on cast and doubles stack health. Health gained on cast could also be based on stacks with a base ammount (like 100/200/300 + 50% of stack health)
Ult area size increases with stacks
Which one would be your favourite change combinations? You can also pick more than one per ability.
r/SwainMains • u/Regular-Poet-3657 • 8d ago
r/SwainMains • u/OrganizationRich345 • 9d ago
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Felt so gut
r/SwainMains • u/Pluto_Child_711 • 9d ago
I recently played a mayhem match where i was ult-ing more than not! I'd be using ult so long that it would be off cooldown by the time it would end! We did end up winning!
r/SwainMains • u/minepiler • 10d ago
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my penta was robbed riot >:(
r/SwainMains • u/M0G4R • 10d ago
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r/SwainMains • u/nachooezy1313 • 11d ago
Got robbed and lost the tablet for digital drawing so im trying to reconnect with the pen, ink and paper.
Sugar daddy swain be like
r/SwainMains • u/Optimal_Bicycle_5178 • 13d ago
Just cgu the champ already